


I Gotta Say...

by sapphireswimming



Series: Aces [4]
Category: Gundam 00
Genre: Gen, Gen Work, Graham Aker is Graham Aker, Gundam 00 Week 2018, One Shot, POV Outsider, Patrick Colasaur is Patrick Colasaur, Soma Peries is Soma Peries, The poor editors are at their wit's end, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27313612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: The entire world wants to hear what the Ace Pilots of each Bloc have to say about their fights against the Gundams of Celestial Being. But behind every interview that's aired is a team of poor, poor editors who actually have to pull the footage together
Series: Aces [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957048
Kudos: 3





	I Gotta Say...

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13734305/1/
> 
> Written for Gundam 00 Week 2018 Day 2: Friends
> 
> Title from the Gundam 00 ending credit song _Friends_ by Stephanie
> 
> No warnings, no spoilers

The lounge of the editing suite was cramped, opening up to a mini fridge, microwave, and two vending machines—one entirely dedicated to energy drinks— against the left wall and the round table taking up most of the rest of the room. The large television monitor mounted against the back wall perpetually played one of the station's many channels, but it was kept at level three volume unless someone actually took the effort to wedge themselves into the corner to manually turn it up.

Three people were already sitting at the table when Vaje came in, so he skirted his way around the table and hooked a foot around the empty chair to pull it out as he punched in the code for a Red Bull into one of the vending machines.

"Didn't expect to see you in here," Jessica greeted as she leaned back in her chair again. "Thought you were behind schedule," she said, as the can came tumbling down from the rack and he stopped unwrapping his sandwich long enough to fish it out and pop the top.

"I know," he said, taking a huge first bite out of his sandwich and chasing it down with a swig before he'd fully swallowed it. One of the interns grimaced across the table as she stabbed at her salad. "Still going through the raw footage for Aker," Vaje said. "Wasn't planning on taking lunch at all, but Joe insisted."

Jessica raised her eyebrows. "And so you're not taking it at your desk because…?"

"Because I spilled coffee in the keyboard this morning," he said around a mouthful of food.

Everyone around the table cringed.

"Thought I lost two hours of editing before they recovered the file for me." His leg bounced up and down as he took another huge bite.

The other intern munched on a granola bar. "Man, you gotta save early…" he said.

"…Save often!" everyone around the table finished in unison.

"I know, I know," Vaje continued with a wave of his hand. "But now I'm only," he took another bite as he considered, "halfway done with this segment."

"You do know that it's airing tomorrow," one of the interns asked slowly.

"Luck, man," Jessica grinned. "You're gonna need it."

Vaje rapped his knuckles twice on the wood table before gulping down a mouthful of Red Bull. "How're things for you guys?"

"I mean?" Jessica fished in her bag for another chip. "It depends on how much of an ego I want to give the Ace of the AEU this week. Hoping to keep it to a minimum but…" she smiled a smile that was almost a grimace. "We'll see how much padding I need. What about you?" she asked, tapping the guy next to her on the shoulder with the back of her hand.

"Oh, um, I'm just finishing up some work with the HRL footage so Joe can approve it this afternoon, hopefully."

"Yeah, me too."

Vaje began to dramatically cry into his sandwich.

"What's wrong with you?" the young man asked in alarm.

Jessica grinned as she popped another chip into her mouth with a crunch. "We would love to work with the HRL footage."

Vaje pointed and nodded and said something that sounded like, "What she said" through a mouthful of food.

The interns looked at each other, confused.

"But why?" the girl eventually asked. "There's like, not really much there…"

"Yeah, I mean it's so straightforward. Question, answer, question, answer, question answer, hopefully Soma Pieres has a facial expression sometime this year, and has anyone answered with more than two sentences anywhere ever?"

"Yeah, but you guys get a half hour interview and you've got what, probably twenty three, twenty five minutes of usable footage?"

He pulled a face. "I guess so?"

Vaje wailed from his chair and moaned "If only" in between bites.

"Why? What do you… have?"

"Well, I've got three and a half hours of Patrick Colasaur this week," Jessica answered him. "Because the man literally never shuts up. It's a matter of finding the bits where he isn't talking about himself, really. I'm guessing I'll end up with about seventeen minutes of good footage that doesn't make him sound like a complete idiot. Maybe twenty five if I really play around with the transitions."

"But that's fine," Vaje said, swallowing hard. "You just play him on double speed and zone out until you hear something that's not about him and you're golden. But me?" he said, taking another drink, "I need to listen to every single second of our raw footage to figure out what we can not let the man say."

He leaned forward with both elbows on the table, the last few mouthfuls of his sandwich momentarily forgotten in his hands. "'How do you feel about your last encounter with the Gundams?'" he parroted in a professional voice, pretending to be an interviewer.

"'Oh,'" he said, tilting his head to the other side and imitating Graham Aker's bravado, "'Well, I'm a Virgo, so I'm only facing the present today.'

"'What is your current opinion in regards to the Gundams, Lieutenant?'" he asked, switching back to his reporter voice.

"'My kingdom!'" he replied to himself, once more in a cadence that was unmistakably meant to be the Union's Ace. "'My kingdom for a Gundam!'

"'Okay, then, Graham Aker,'" he angrily bit out to the table at large, "'what's your plan for your next meeting with the Gundams?'"

Vaje stared between the two interns before providing Aker's answer. "'I want to lock them in a sweet lover's embrace?'" he repeated, incredulously. "The hell? We can't air stuff like that!"

Jessica snorted.

"You get a question," he leaned forward again, pointing at the interns, "at least you get a straight answer. Freaking Virgos," he said into his sandwich. "My last girlfriend was a Virgo," he said around a mouthful of turkey. "I swear. They'll be the death of me."

"Your lunch break will be the death of you," Jessica said as the interns continued to silently gape at him.

Vaje's eyes went wide as he checked his watch. He cursed, stuffing the rest of his sandwich into his mouth, then realized that meant he couldn't finish his drink. He swiped the nearly empty can off the table and wadded up the napkin with his other hand, muttering something unintelligible.

"Be sure not to spill that on your computer," Jessica warned with a grin.

He turned around to glare at her, still mumbling around his mouthful of sandwich before lobbing the napkin into the trashcan.

"You too," she laughed, as he disappeared out the door.


End file.
